Medium sized estate car

champ222 · 21 Jan 2019 at 16:20

Hi All.

i'm looking for a new family car. The requirements are that is has plenty of boot space and easy to drive/maneuver.

The Wife and i went and sat in a few to narrow the field a bit. We ended up thinking along the lines of a medium sized hatchback, with a bigger than average boot, or a medium sized estate car.

Hatch: We saw the Citroen C4, which has a surprisingly big boot, and we looked at a honda civic (9th Gen). They are noticeably bigger boot wise, than the focus, golf etc.

Estate: We saw a focus estate, kia Ceed sport wagon, Leon estate, all would work well. The honda civic estate looks like a good option too.

Budget is around 6k ideally, though i could push that to 8k if i felt it was money well spent.

I'm focusing on reliability as my main goal, as i have little time to be faffing around with it too much.

I dont need, or want a diesel, as we wont do the mileage in it, and the DPF would be a concern. this will limit availability, particularly the estates, as they tend to be diesels, but there are some about.

Any thoughts and/or recommendations?

Cheers

iamdjdz · 21 Jan 2019 at 19:22

Fabia estate has a great boot/load space. Can get petrols with good reliability too. I know it's a Skoda but they're actually not bad. Find a monte carlo or ellegance trim one if not bothered about auto box.

tom_nieto · 21 Jan 2019 at 19:28

Skoda Octavia estate has a massive boot. The saloon that I drove didn’t seem enormous and manoeuvred quite well. Octavia, focus and civic would be my go to.

andicole0 · 21 Jan 2019 at 19:30

No one suggesting a Mondeo?
Andi.

tom_nieto · 21 Jan 2019 at 19:38

andicole0 said:
No one suggesting a Mondeo?
Andi.

They’re pretty big these days! Would be an excellent choice for load lugging though...

Shimmy · 21 Jan 2019 at 20:00

Car I'm selling is a good shout, Seat Exeo estate. Although mine is provisionally sold already.

They're basically a remodelled Audi A4. Had mine 3 years and it's been faultless, Tech pack offers good features and pretty economical too. Big boot to lug about most things, had beds, sofas, bikes, various sports equipment in the back of mine.

andicole0 · 21 Jan 2019 at 20:09

tom_nieto said:
They’re pretty big these days! Would be an excellent choice for load lugging though...

But a £6k one would be older and probably smaller?
Andi.

champ222 · 21 Jan 2019 at 20:39

Thanks guys.

The skodas are a good shout. The regular octavia hatch would probably be big enough. The fabia is worth a look too. I have no issues with skodas, Cant say im a fan of the styling though.

Yeah the mondeo is a bit big really. My wife would worry about hitting stuff. They do feel quite big. She would probably be fine, shes pretty good at driving, my dad has mis judged the size of his. Our kids are small still so dont need loads of space inside the car, just boot space. If you get what i mean?

Hadnt considered the exeo... though the leon estate is probably big enough.. ia the not estate exeo a hatch or saloon?

Cheers guys

Shimmy · 21 Jan 2019 at 20:45

Exeo based on A4 so it comes in saloon and estate, seats obviously go flat in the back for the estate.

champ222 · 21 Jan 2019 at 21:28

Ill check it out. Thanks

Diddums · 21 Jan 2019 at 21:50

Screw the h8ers, buy this.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lincoln-...939910?hash=item33fe4f44c6:g:tpQAAOSwmOBcFTJ~

geekman · 22 Jan 2019 at 04:01

Diddums said:
Screw the h8ers, buy this.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lincoln-...939910?hash=item33fe4f44c6:g:tpQAAOSwmOBcFTJ~

My neighbour's selling his for £1500

champ222 · 22 Jan 2019 at 07:48

Lol... ill pass thanks

fastwunz · 22 Jan 2019 at 08:18

Can get 2014 petrol Vauxhal insignias for that money - low mileage ones too.

Loads of kit and pretty decent cars.

Skoda might offer even better value perhaps?

BinnsY · 22 Jan 2019 at 08:47

As others are saying this screams Octavia to me. You can get nice low mileage high spec ones for this money.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201812203394957

champ222 · 22 Jan 2019 at 12:59

yeah i know... i will check out the octavias. it seems the obvious choice, but i'm just not keen when i look at the photos. I'll try see one in person.

flibbage0 · 22 Jan 2019 at 16:45

champ222 said:
Hi All.

i'm looking for a new family car. The requirements are that is has plenty of boot space and easy to drive/maneuver.

The Wife and i went and sat in a few to narrow the field a bit. We ended up thinking along the lines of a medium sized hatchback, with a bigger than average boot, or a medium sized estate car.

Hatch: We saw the Citroen C4, which has a surprisingly big boot, and we looked at a honda civic (9th Gen). They are noticeably bigger boot wise, than the focus, golf etc.

Estate: We saw a focus estate, kia Ceed sport wagon, Leon estate, all would work well. The honda civic estate looks like a good option too.

Budget is around 6k ideally, though i could push that to 8k if i felt it was money well spent.

I'm focusing on reliability as my main goal, as i have little time to be faffing around with it too much.

I dont need, or want a diesel, as we wont do the mileage in it, and the DPF would be a concern. this will limit availability, particularly the estates, as they tend to be diesels, but there are some about.

Any thoughts and/or recommendations?

Cheers

Shame about the diesel bit, I've got a Manual Volvo V60 D3 R-Design, 5 cylinder diesel, thinking of selling it, if you're interested I can tell you some more details?

jpaul · 22 Jan 2019 at 17:10

Aren't the tsi engines, drinking problems, in target octavias, something to be scared of ? so I was going to say ford focus or, indeed volvo v60 estate

petrol volvos look scarce on the ground though

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-se...ice-to=7000&body-type=Estate&fuel-type=Petrol

BinnsY · 22 Jan 2019 at 19:34

champ222 said:
yeah i know... i will check out the octavias. it seems the obvious choice, but i'm just not keen when i look at the photos. I'll try see one in person.

If it's purely the looks drop to a manual and you could have a VRS for the same money instead?

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201901083732118

I avoided recommending them as you haven't listed performance as a requirement, but one might make a nice option if you can stomach the lower MPG? (I have one and you wont get much over 30MPG for short trips, or 40 on long runs).

HangTime · 24 Jan 2019 at 00:14

308SW has a massive boot relative to the overall size of the car (660L so bigger than nearly all estates from any class), but I think you may struggle to find a petrol variant within budget (then again, you've mentioned the Leon and Civic estates, which don't seem to be either...), and if reliability is the main goal then Peugeot may not be top of the list. From what I can see on autotrader, if you upped your budget to say £8.5k you would potentially open up a whole new market of mid-sized petrol estates with big boots.